What PDA?

[cnrees]

Hi all, im new to the whole pda world, and after a few hours looking through ebay i decided to do some research before i buy, hence ive come to this forum. there's a lot of good stuff here, but tbh, its so much it just compounds the issue of what pda i need so ill tell you my circumstances..

im a surveryer for a company and travel a great deal in manchester and north wales, i dont really want a lot of clutter and wires in the car cos its allready a tip, therefore im thinking along the lines of inbuilt gps. this would also help me when walking through towns. Therefore a nice battery life would be usefull, tho tbh i probably only spend about 3-4 hours a day out of the car so recharging wouldnt be a problem. i have tom tom5 ready to go so something compatible, i have a 256m sd card.

i was looking at a acer n35 but there seems to be some sattelite issues with it and tomtom( a mate has problems locking on every morning) ive read the forums and it seems an extra antenae is needed, just more wires .

i need a pda that can transfer small xcel/word files to/from a desktop pc, usb etc

not too bothered about bluetooth (if inbuilt gps, i dont see the need for it <- ????)

any help or experiences would well appreciated, thanks for your time in advance.

[joeninety]

thought of a MIO?

the 168+ is a good system with the receiver built in.

[cnrees]

y, isnt there a an A201 too? anyone have any experience of these 2?

[madtam]

The A201 is an updated version of the 168 with a nwer operating system and additional features such as bluetooth. Whilst it looks better on paper the bluetooth seems to have some problems and the newer OS has caused issues with installation of tomtom in particular. I have the A201 which replaced a 168 (when I broke the screen) and I find it a very nice device and as I don't use tomtom then I don't have that problem. The bluetooth is OK but I haven't managed to use it to ynchronise with my PC having to use the USB cable instead. One of the advantages of the Mio is that they are slightly cheaper than some of the competition if price is a big issue.
The A201 does appear to have better and quicker satellite acquisition and retention due to the newer chip and a replaceable battery which would give you the possibility to restart without having to recharge although you woud be starting from a hard reset so all data would have to be backed up.

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